Waiting for Godot: Clear Criticism of Christianity

Samuel Beckett may have denied the use of Christian mythology in Waiting for Godot, but
the character of Lucky proves otherwise. We can read Lucky as a symbolic figure of
Christ, and, as such, his actions in the play carry a criticism of Christianity, suggesting
that the merits of Christianity have decreased to the point where they no longer help man
at all.
The parallels between Christ and Lucky are strong. Lucky, chained with a rope, is the
humiliated prisoner, much like Jesus was the prisoner of the Romans after Judas turned
him in. Estragon beats, curses, and spits on Lucky exactly as the Roman treated Jesus
when preparing him for crucifixion. Lucky carries the burden of Pozzo's bags like a
perpetual cross, and he is being led to a public fair where he will be mocked and sold; the
Romans paraded Jesus on the hill where for public scorn. As Jesus fell three times under
the weight of his burden, Lucky falls many times with the weight of the luggage, stool,
coat, and picnic basket. Furthermore, Estragon wipes Lucky's eyes-like Veronica wiped
Jesus' face-so he will "feel less forsaken" (p. 21b), which alludes directly to Jesus' cry from
the cross: "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" [My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?]
(Mark 15:34). Lucky slowly chokes as the rope cuts into his neck; crucifixion suffocated
Jesus.
Pozzo, paraphrasing Estragon's question, then asks a rhetorical question concerning
Lucky: "Why he doesn't make himself comfortable?" (p.21a). This question refers
specifically to the taunt spectators hurled at Jesus, "Save yourself, why don't you? Come
down off the cross if you are God's son," and refers generally to Christ's mission of
suffering on earth (Matthew 26:40). Pozzo replies that Lucky doesn't want to drop the
luggage because "he wants to mollify me, so that I will give up the idea of parting with
him," and Lucky "imagines that when I see how well he carries I'll be tempted to keep him
on in that capacity" (p. 21a). Likewise, Jesus believed that he had to carry out his burden-
crucifixion-to awaken man's faith in God for time to come. Jesus commissioned his
apostles to "make disciples of all nations...teach them to carry out everything I have
commanded you. And always know that I am with you" (Matthew 28:18-20). Jesus
wanted humanity to act in his own memory, or to keep himself on in that capacity, which
was that of teacher, comforter, and ultimately deliverer of salvation.
In that vein, Pozzo says he took on Lucky explicitly, and Christianity by extension, to
"understand beauty, grace, truth of the first water" (p. 22b). But he soon feels both have
outlived their usefulness:
Vladimir: After having sucked all the good out of him you chuck him away like... a banana
skin. Really...
Pozzo: (groaning, clutching his head) I can't bear it... any longer... the way he goes on...
you've no idea... it's terrible. . .he must go... (he waves his arms)… I'm going mad… he
collapses, his head in his hands)... I can't bear it… any longer…
Pozzo: (sobbing) He used to be so kind… so helpful… and entertaining… my good angel…
and now… he's killing me (pps. 22b-23a)

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This exchange establishes a time frame with two windows, then and now. In the past,
Pozzo had benefitted from Lucky; now, the benefits are gone. Something, therefore, has
occurred in the time between the two windows that has reduced Lucky's capabilities and
overall effect (this change will be further explored later). Furthermore, it is an abstract
effectiveness, rather than a material effectiveness, that has deteriorated because Lucky
remains an adequate luggage carrier. Lucky can no longer offer what soothed and
satisfied Pozzo's spirit; instead, he torments it. When Pozzo says that Lucky is killing him,
he is not referring to any violent acts by Lucky, but rather to what constitutes spiritual
abuse. While he was once a benefit, Lucky now becomes a liability to Pozzo, prompting
his plans to discard the slave. Describing the disposal of a faithful human in terms of the
comic symbol of a banana peel further reduces the worth of Lucky: a banana peel is
trash.
If we consider Lucky as a symbol for a dying Christ, this exchange shows two things.
First, Jesus' redemptive sacrifice is no longer worth what it once was. Second, this failure
translates into the spiritual failure, or even the liability, of Christianity.
Just as the worth of Jesus' sacrifice has changed, the actions and words of Lucky have
also degenerated: "He used to dance the farandole, the fling, the brawl, the jig, the
fandango, the hornpipe. He capered. For joy. Now that's the best he can do" (p. 27a).
Lucky's broad range of mirthful dances has now been reduced to a single sequence of
stiff movements performed on command to cheer up two thieves. The reduction and
sacrifice of an articulate Christ to a suffering man is now a mechanized action for
amusing bored men. Further, the sacrifice eventually will be tossed like the banana peel.
The allusion to Christianity suggests that, like the dance, the religion has changed as the
actual foundations of its faith-Jesus' actions and words-have deteriorated from graceful
fluidity to rusty creaking. Christ's eloquent surface stories, which underneath held true
meaning, have become Lucky's words, and though Lucky "used to think prettily once," he
now speaks in a running babble that borders on unintelligibility (p. 26b). Lucky's speech
is like a runaway parable; his verbal "tirade" almost conceals all meaning. Upon close
examination, however, it furthers the idea of the dwindling value of the Christian faith:
Given the existence as uttered forth in the public works of Puncher and Wattmann of a
personal God quaquaquaqua with a white beard. . .who from the heights of divine apathia
divine athambia divine aphasia loves us dearly. . . (p. 28b)
Lucky talks in complexity, mimicking scientific style. He states givens and cites texts, but
his speech lacks the coherence and organization of a science. The quaquaquaqua loosely
translates into series of stuttered "which's" and shows a roughness far from the "beauty"
and "grace" once shown Pozzo (22b). Underneath this scientific incoherence, though,
Lucky states the subject of his discourse: Christ, the "personal God." The opposition of
the scientific tone and the topic of faith hints at the constant struggle for one to find its
place within the other. In this speech, faith and science actually detract from each other,
diminishing both of their values. This duel between ideas and language will come up
again in the future exploration of Bishop Berkeley, a scientific theologian.

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As Christians believe, Christ was God as well as a human, with all of humanity's
accompanying strengths and weaknesses. He was literally God as a person ("personal
God"), and he lived among heights of humanity's shortcomings, which Lucky paraphrases
in three cryptic "A" words. "Apathia" is a lack of caring; "aphasia" is an inability to speak;
and "athambia's" meaning is unknown to me, but I would point out its proximity to
atheism, or the belief in no God. Christ was introduced into the "A's" of a spiritually
empty world, which lacked interest, expression, and belief in God. With his simple, yet
powerful words and his miracles, Christ had the tools and the opportunity to fill man's
hollow. Yet the emptiness is still present-it is even the stimulus for Lucky to mention the
three "A's" in his present discourse. Christ failed to fulfill his purpose.
Lucky continues his tirade in the same manner, speaking of the antipodal places in
Christ's teachings, heaven and hell:
...that is to say blast hell to heaven so blue still and calm so calm so calm with a calm
which even though is intermittent is better than nothing... (p. 28b)
Lucky's stilted rhetoric generally restates what Christ preached, but it also shows how
Christ's teachings can be confusing and contradictory. One way to interpret the
punctuation-less passage is to separate "blast hell" from "to heaven" and treat them as
two separate commands. The command then becomes an instruction to turn away from
the temptations of hell and look toward the peace of heaven. This is, of course, the
central theme of many of Christ's teachings. Why then would Lucky express it in such a
way that allows one to read the phrases together? Connected, the passage tells us to
"blast hell to heaven," or place sin and temptation together in the middle of heaven. This
would not only disrupt heaven's peace, but also flatten the entire structure and hierarchy
of Christianity, placing God and the Devil, Good and Evil, on a level plane. Furthermore,
why would Lucky point out the weaknesses of the faith, that heaven's calm is
"intermittent" and merely "better than nothing?" Because the creation of a faith
immediately creates the shortcomings of the faith as a corollary. Christ's words, as retold
by Lucky, establish the spatial hierarchy of the Christian faith and simultaneously flatten
that same space, as well as the same faith.
Lucky is not finished; he persists, exploring a similar idea:
…that man in short that man in brief in spite of the strides of alimentation and defecation
wastes and pines wastes and pines and concurrently simultaneously…
The body's excretory system parallels Christianity. The act of eating necessitates the
removal of what was eaten; likewise, the act of believing necessitates the questioning
and ultimate removal of the same belief. Constant eating yields constant defecation,
with no net satiation. Similarly, ingesting the faith removes the same faith immediately
after the body processes it and finds only enough value to sustain, never to satisfy. And
sustenance is not enough. Just as the value of $100 today will be worth much less in just
ten years, as man progresses though time with no net improvement, his value actually
decreases, or "wastes." And man pines for more. Christianity, therefore, has only a

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limited sustaining effect in the short-term (just as it touches man's lips), and as a long-
term, advancing faith, it is a waste. It flows out of man's bowels the very next moment.
Lucky then begins to explore how the faith is reduced, placing his argument in the
context of his pseudo-scientific talk: "no matter what matter the facts are there" (p. 29a).
The dual "matters" allude to Bishop Berkeley, whose name appeared in the book five
lines above this quote (p. 29a). Berkeley was an Irish Bishop who attempted in his
writings to reconcile science and the Christian doctrine. He said that matter exists if it is
perceived by some mind, and that matter, therefore, exists because God is always
thinking of everything. In effect Berkeley was able to harmonize God and science.
Science exists because God thinks about it; thinking about science constitutes God. Now
the Bishop is dead, literally and metaphorically. Lucky's tirade makes a weak attempt to
revive the Bishop's ideas by putting the language of science and faith together. But
instead of harmonizing, they clash. In the context of this dissonance, in a desperate
attempt to save faith in the face of questioning, the quote is a command just to accept
the evidences of faith even if science disagrees- "no matter what matter." Faith now
disregards science, and because of this, it is in a much weaker position to defend
questions without scientific support to back it up. Christianity's strength has been
reduced.
Lucky also shows the devaluation of the Christian faith with the constant oblique
references to "Cunard." Sir Samuel Cunard founded the line of Cunard steamships in the
mid- nineteenth century. His ships played a pivotal role in the Crimean War (1853-1856),
which was caused by a dispute between Russia, France, and Turkey over Holy Places in
Jerusalem. This reference is particularly apt because in early 1948, the year Beckett
wrote this play, Israel became a nation containing many of the same Holy Places. The
very next day the Arabs, composed partially of Christians, attacked the Israelis and
stormed East Jerusalem and the Holy Places. Men, at the very time Beckett conceived
Godot, were murdering each other to possess the city where one religion of peace and
sharing began. Christianity, in part, made the city of Jerusalem special, and that act, in
turn, destroys what is most special: life.
Lucky finally brings to a close his discourse with an encyclopedia of unheeded evidence of
Christianity:
…in spite of the tennis on on the the beard the flames the tears the stones so blue so
calm alas alas on on the skull the skull the skull in Connemara in spite of the tennis the
labors abandoned left unfinished… (p. 29b)
This portion of the text points in many directions toward one underlying purpose. Some
creative research seems in order. Tennis was originally named jeu de paume, which
translates "a game of the palm." This could allude to Christ's stigmata, which he showed
to Thomas as evidence of his identity and resurrection. The flames allude to the
Pentecostal flames that descended upon the apostles as tongues of fire, filling them with
the Holy Spirit and allowing them to speak in foreign tongues so as to communicate the
word of God to foreigners.

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The tears, I think, refer to Mary Magdalene's tears upon finding Jesus' tomb empty. She
then saw a man who asked her why she was weeping, to which she replied because Jesus'
body had been removed from the tomb. That man then revealed himself to be Jesus, and
Mary became the first witness of Jesus' resurrection and ascension. Likewise, the stone
refers to the giant stone which was sealed over the opening of Jesus' tomb. According to
Matthew, an angel appeared to the tomb's guards, moved the stone as if it were a
pebble, and made the guards believers. Lastly, the skull refers to Golgotha, or Skull
Place, where Jesus was crucified. At this place, according to the New Testament, the
earth shook as God eclipsed the sun at the moment Jesus died, fulfilling Christ's own
prophecy of the events of his death. The passage lists evidence of evidence, but its
fragmentation and sheer eclecticism work to undermine the value of the evidence, and by
extension, devalue the faith.
Still, each allusion is an allusion to evidence, which makes the final words of the quote
even more significant: "labors abandoned left unfinished." Despite all of the witnesses
and miracles, words and actions, the Christian faith is abandoned and left unfinished.
The Christian campaign, even with Christ's revelations, can't outshadow its empirical
shortcomings and truly mollify man. Thus it fails.
People at one time experienced and believed the evidences when they happened. People
at one time gained help, or at least comfort or entertainment, from Christ and
Christianity. But just as Christ then abandoned his life on the cross, leaving his future
unfinished, man has now abandoned the Christian faith, never translating its teachings
into reality. One could say man only followed Christ's example.
The tirade finally ends when Pozzo, Estragon, and Vladimir triumphantly tackle Lucky, like
the mob which turns upon Jesus, silencing him, shouting "Crucify him! Crucify him!"
Lucky serves Pozzo well, insisting on carrying his burden. But his burden is an empty
symbol: bags filled with sand. In the same way, Christ, by his example, taught humanity
to shoulder burden, but, according to Waiting for Godot, the burden is not worth
carrying. Christ was both the beginning and the end of Christianity, just as Lucky began
his service with high intentions, but ends as a slave who speaks only gibberish, on his
way to the auction block. In the end, they both destroy what they hoped to create.

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